Desertification Reversal Promotes the Complexity of Plant Community by Increasing Plant Species Diversity of Each Plant Functional Type

verfasst von

Kaiyang Qiu, Zhigang Li, Yingzhong Xie, Dongmei Xu, Chen He, Richard Pott

Abstract

Desertification reversal is globally significant for the sustainable development of land resources. However, the mechanisms of desertification reversal at the level of plant community are still unclear. We hypothesized that desertification reversal has clear effects on plant community composition, plant functional types (PFTs), and other vegetation characteristics, including plant diversity and biomass, and their changes in the early stages of reversal are more dramatic than in later stages. We investigated the vegetation of four to five different stages of desertification reversal at each of seven large study sites in southwestern Mu Us Sandy Land, China. The results show that the dominant species in very severe desertification areas were replaced by perennial grasses in potential desertification areas. The importance values of annual forbs and perennial sub-shrubs decreased dramatically (from 42.59 and 32.98 to 22.13 and 5.54, respectively), whereas those of perennial grasses and perennial forbs increased prominently (from 13.26 and 2.71 to 53.94 and 11.79, respectively) with the reversal of desertification. Desertification reversal increased the complexity of plant community composition by increasing plant species in each PFT, and C₃ plants replaced C₄ plants to become the dominant PFT with reversal. Plant species richness and species diversity rose overall, and aboveground plant biomass significantly (p < 0.05) increased with the reversal of desertification. Most vegetation characteristics changed more strikingly in the early stages of desertification reversal than in later stages. Our results indicate that the type and composition of the plant community were dramatically affected by desertification reversal. Anthropogenic measures are more applicable to being employed in early stages than in later stages, and Amaranthaceae C₄ plants are suggested to be planted in mobile dunes for the acceleration of desertification reversal. This study is useful for designing strategies of land management and ecological restoration in arid and semiarid regions.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Geobotanik

Externe Organisation(en)

Ningxia University
Henan University of Science and Technology

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Agronomy

Band

14

Anzahl der Seiten

17

ISSN

2073-4395

Publikationsdatum

2024

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Agronomie und Nutzpflanzenwissenschaften

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 15 – Lebensraum Land

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14010096 (Zugang: Offen)